FELT (Go Kart Mozart, Denim)... Lawrence is amazing!

I have Back In Denim, which is ace ("in the seventies there were Osmonds, there were lots of little Osmonds..."), but I got pissed off with the singles from 'On Ice' and never bought it.

Also have the Go-Kart Mozart album, which is patchy (but I forgive it everything for name-checking Poing by the Rotterdam Termination Source).

Jane Suck died in 77....

I wish that were the case in the states -- I finally had to have someone burn me a copy (thanks fernando!).

He surfaced on a St. Ettiene track "Paper" which he co-wrote. I don't know which album or single this track was originally on, but it's on the Smash the System comp.

I prefer Deebank-era Felt to Duffy-era Felt, although I'm not fond of MD's florid classical-style playing. They sound best when he's kept on a tight leash e.g Penelope Tree or Mexican Bandits. "Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty", the debut, is a classic, and it's downhill from there IMHO.

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0043,seward,18841,22.html

grr.

i always kept meaning to pick it up .. but never plumped up the hard earned for it ..

i suspect a lifetime of regret to follow on now ..

One of my my fav moment was when Select interviewed a bunch of people about the Exciting New Oasis album and Lawrence Hayward was like, "Oh god I hate it when musicians start singing about their kids.... They should be singing about fucking in the bushes, not their stupid families."

Obviously a new Denim album would perhaps be even more glorious, Denim Takes Over has been on the cards since, um, about 1997 maybe? I love the idea that in Lawrence's mind there is zero overlap between Denim and GKM and that they serve entirely different purposes and appeal to totally different audiences, and songs are specifically written either for one or the other.

This is great news! I was just ranting to someone this weekend that Lawrence has never even received half of the recognition that he deserves.

Mooro, can you link to that ETA song again?

Please and thank you.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00097HDW2/ref=cm_mp_wli_/202-7893692-0081442

is being released the same day as this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00093UQUC/ref=cm_mp_wli_/202-7893692-0081442

Wich I think it's a very happy coincidence.

I've only just got hold of the St Etienne! Overdosing on Most Antipated Records For Several Years, today. I should probably listen to it now.

If you can't appreciate the towering majesty of songs like "Drinkin' Um Bongo" then I feel sorry for you.

It is less psychotic than the last one. It is not dissimilar to Novelty Rock, perhaps. At first I thought it was just an album of "Summer Smash"seses... I don't want to say that it has more 'depth' than that, because, that would be pretty wanky. But. They are "real" songs, yes.

Also, as last time: recommended listening, lyrics to track from next album, bandname suggestions (Shoes & Socks! Salamanda Palaganda!), 'new records to look out for' etc etc. The whole package is a beautiful thing, there is certainly no question at all of this being some kind of sub-Denim pissabout (not that I thought the last album was either, but I gather that others kind of did).

On $|$|< the other day I located a guy who was sharing an unreleased 1998-era-ish version of Denim Takes Over. This was quite surprising. "Trangressions", "City Centre" and "Delta Echo" from the new GKM are also on this, and "At The DDU" apparently previously existed as "Lorra Laughs, Cilla". I need to lavish more time on the rest of it, but, fantastic.

The (Bob Stanley) review of Go-Kart Mozart in the current Uncut includes teensy interview wherein Lawrence claims that a third album will be out later this year, I can't remember if he was referring to Denim or GKM. But the prospect of either is pretty glorious.

!!!

How come I never find anything like that on $|$|< nowadays?

Some downloads here, including Denim's mythical "Summer Smash" single! Good site in general, that. Check out the pictures page, I'll be scouring eBay for those Denim patches and beermats.

http://felt2.home.sapo.pt/gkm-Elephant_trunk.mp3

Got pics, mp3, discography, etc.

Drop by.
Cheers,
Rui

In the meantime, as an intro for the uninitiated, here's what I wrote about the record nearly four years ago (gasp!).

tube: Bethnal Green
buses: 8, 388

I'm planning a Lawrence spotlight feature at Tower U.S. - too bad Denim On Ice and Novelty Rock aren't reissued (yet?) so I could hint at the joys of "Brumburger" and "The New Potatoes" (and other tunes that irritated as b-sides but became brilliant as a great crap comp). probably build the feature around the core of Strange Idols, Forever Breathes, Back In Denim and Tearing Up (latter also read as choking up, making you blub).

current spotlights: Comsats and Rob Wratten (thanks lovely reissue labels).

You may or may not find it amusing.

alternatively ankle tattoo, i think lawrence would dig that

or is that the second line...

Yes, I saw them. So did Mooro and (possibly against her will) Lixi McLixi AKA Raston Warrior Robot.

No, there was not any Denim. It was very loud.

That would be great, do it!

the working mens club show was great. the set was a bit short and lawrence's voice could have been higher in the mix. it was all pretty together. the band were oddly reminiscent of earl brutus in their loud blokey glam stompiness. but earl brutus with lawrence singing, which is fine by me. i never saw denim mind. let alone felt.

i still haven't gotten my felt tattoo. but i still wanna do it. just gotta wait for the right time.

Lawrence talks to Girls.

Oh my god! I've been obsessed with Lawrence for about 14 years but I've never heard him be interviewed before. He's so awkward and sweet, it just made me love him even more.

One day someone will write about a book about his life and he will finally get the recognition he deserves.

You should read the book 'Song Man' by Will Hodgkinson.

We're currently working on a Felt/Lawrence fanzine, due out early this spring - the release will be announced on our blog at http://foxtrotecholimatango.blogspot.com.

At the moment contents include essays, memoirs (reliable and unreliable), portraits of Lawrence, unanswered emails, previously unseen photographs, a Felt family tree, tour posters and other more oblique offerings!

xpost, the lawrence parts of the 'song man' book are pretty depressing. he's sort of a wreck in there, attending NA meetings, on the verge of eviction, still dreaming about writing his #1 hit though. it was written in 2007 so maybe he's in a better situation now.

(oddly enough i just mentioned that book on a different thread i just started up)

Foxtrot, I have some photos that I took at Felt's last ever show at Burberry's in Birmingham that I can mail you or share online if yr interested. They used to be on Rui's old Felt tribute site but that doesn't seem to be getting updated these days - good on you for keeping the torches burning.

Hey Bill, nice to meet you.
That sounds well exciting! Maybe you could sent them to us?
Would be highly aprecciated, of course.

At one particular lowpoint in the 90s, Lawrence was hired by McGee to be Creation's receptionist. The only problem was that he didn't know how to work the phones, and whenever a call needed to be transferred, he had to get up from this desk, walk to whoever the call was for and ask them to come back and put the call through to their own phone (at least, that's what a Creation staffer of the time told me). The arrangement didn't last long.

Just to let you know that we have the fanzine now.
For more information, you might go to
http://foxtrotecholimatango.blogspot.com/
Also, Rui's Felt Tribute Site has been relaunched:
http://felt-tribute.webs.com/default.htm
Exciting times, isn't it!

It looks cool and that's a pretty impressive list of contributors. Congrats. Good to see on Rui's site that the new Go-Kart Mozart album is still scheduled for this year!

Is this Lawrence Of Belgravia film ever going to come out?

This year apparently.

They've been saying that since at least 2008.

if i'm not in it, then that fanzine has no credibility. i'm his number one fan!

i will pick up the fanzine, looks awes.

this is the best interview with lawrence online i reckon: http://felt.planetaclix.pt/Articles/interview.htm

goes into quite a lot of detail, lawrence talks about every felt release.

That was from Record Collector originally, and is indeed one of the most straight-forward interviews he's done.

yeah, posted online i mean

Great to see there's some interest!
The fanzine features interviews with Lawrence too.
One from 1985 by Chris Heath, another one from 2005 by Alistair Fitchett. Both seriously long and revealing.

ne more deets on the film release?

i put it in my top five films of 2008 in an important film magazine

saw it on the night of the US electch iirc

was that the full film or the work-in-progress version?

the fanzine looks excellent - will def be placing an order.

just a w.i.p.

I can't believe it's been five years since he's put anything else out. I heard rumours of a new Go-Kart album but this was four years ago. Will Denim Take Over ever see release? Also didn't he once mention a solo album influenced by Lou Reed's Berlin?

I could just do with some new material from him right now.

Also didn't he once mention a solo album influenced by Lou Reed's Berlin?

"Bilston"

Aloha all,

"Hey - do you like American rock?
Have you ever hidden behind internet curtains?
Can we mostly find you in the Middle of the Road?

See you at the Rocket Cottage Radio Roadshow - a semi-live performance tribute to Lawrence of Belgravia at the Betsey Trotwood, Friday 6th August, doors 7pm...

...Now yer talkin'!

Another show to celebrate the release of Foxtrot Echo Lima Tango - the Lawrence tribute book from German artist Christian Flamm. Live performance from the Rocket Cottage Radio Roadshow

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121633144549695&ref=mf
http://foxtrotecholimatango.blogspot.com/

ayo is there any news on 'lawrence of belgravia'?

In 1987 promotional opportunities for an 'Indie' group were few and far between. So when Felt were offered to appear on a Newcastle commercial radio station to promote a show that evening at the Riverside venue in town the group couldn't really refuse - even when they arrived to find that the DJ host had almost no knowledge of the group's background history, not even one of their records to play, couldn't pronounce their name correctly ("The Felt") and seemed to be from the hyper, had-too-many Refreshers Timmy Mallett school of presenting...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzqSqFVHCjI

http://felt-tribute.webs.com/images/mojo2010.jpg

This article has made my day.

says 'lawrence of belgravia' will be on at the LFF, but apparently it... isn't :(

great news about the reissues though!

I’m against the ‘00s I don’t care what you say
I’m against the ‘00s you don’t listen to me anyway
well I’m for the ‘90s –oh- and for the ‘10s too
yeah I’m against the ‘00s girl look what they’ve done to you

I made a new sound and they put it underground
it was a thunderbolt crash they said it’s never going to last in the ‘00s

we’re victims of the ‘00s yeah you and me girl
deflated by the ‘00s getting caught up in its social whirl
you should have seen me in the ‘90s I was different then
oh but those times have gone and they ain’t never coming back again

so I formed myself a band and I toured it ‘round the land
I took a look around there was nothing going down in the ‘00s

remember in the ‘90s when we were at school
hangin’ out with the older boys bending all the little rules
remember in the ’93 yeah you and me
in a little wood leaning up against the tree

if the truth’s to be told then we were 12 years old
they say crime doesn’t pay but it surely did that day in the ‘90s,
yeah yeahyeah

I’m against the ‘00s duran duran
fake make-up boys the rum-runner clan
I knew you when you were at school you were nothing then
and when you left the band you were nothing again
you bought yourself a farm and you looked about as calm
as a man who’s going to freak ‘cause an earthquake’s hit his street in the ‘00s

well I’m against the ‘00s bands that couldn’t play
I’m against the ‘00s singers with nothing to say
you heard it on the radio you saw it on the tv
you still went and bought it thought – aah it amazes me

you wouldn’t know know style if it ran you up the aisle
you couldn’t spot a star if he came within a mile of the ‘00s

I’m looking forward to the ‘10s yeah I’ve got a new girl
we’re into ravesignal III ‘cos “we’re in love with the modern world”
I’m sick of winklepicker kids mary chain debris
I’ve just had enough of that nah it doesn’t interest me

I’ve made a new sound this ain’t going underground
it’s a thunderbolt crash concerns the future and the past
but not the ‘00s no not the ‘00s we’re talkin' 'bout the ‘00s.

i want that t-shirt!

x-posts

I want that shirt as well.

didn't realise he'd been in a bad way. what's the story anyone know? i hope he gets some money out of it this time. can't see it mind.

he was living on bennies in belgravia, and on some kind of drugs [government drugs, to help him off smack, or so it looked] when the doc was filmed, hence the title

I hope he tours the US doing Felt material. Fingers crossed.

ive only this year started listening to a LOT of felt, and tbh, i wish id had a little more time to quietly invest in the whole lawrence oeuvre before reissue fever struck (followed by blog fever). i know that's dumb, and like i wasnt alive when the first record came out, and who cares what is popular anyway, but like, it's fun to not have everything be reissued! the thrill of real discovery!

but also i always get cranky about everything between 4 and 6pm.

it's fun to not have everything be reissued! the thrill of real discovery!

That was the 20th century, my friend. But your point is well taken, and if you can restrain yourself you can still feel that thrill.

yeah, im feelin better.

I am so glad to hear he's doing well these days, I didn't realise he was in such a bad way. I'm really looking forward to hearing the new albums, it's been way too long since his last album. The thought of him doing big pop songs aimed at the charts makes me a little giddy.

It would be great to see him live, he's one of the few people I absolutely love that I've never managed to see.

For those still interested in things:
we have made a couple more copies of the fanzine now.
You can get them here
http://foxtrotecholimatango.blogspot.com
Also, there was a short article about Brit Pop band Denim in last friday's Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/21/denim-britpop-band

I'm not missing out this time - ordered, and thanks for the heads up F.E.L.T.

ordered mine as soon as the email showed up a couple weeks ago!

just ordered one too... kicked myself for missing out last time..

Glad i came back here.
Hope you'll like the book!

Received the book on Friday and all I can say is that if you are in any way a fan of Felt then you owe it to yourself to buy it. From the design, to the photos, to the essays and interviews, it's front-to-back superb. Clearly a total labour of love as well, the editors Christian and Mike should be rightly proud.

this^^^

got mine today, but my fingers are too greasy from banh mi to feel okay touching it yet hahaha

forever breathes the pictorial greasy bahn mi jackson

omg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yJqV5pDxHA

Photos taken of famous people together that you would never have expected to be together but make you happy all the same.

That clip of Lawrence on The One Show is amazing, my friend text me about it but I was too late to catch it.

Also I would do anything for one of those yellow vinyls of Summer Smash they showed.

whuuuuuuuut

is that gyles 'thatcher' brandreth with lawrence?

Much as I love them/him, I am kinda bored of the eternal narrative of how supposedly Denim would've been huge if it hadn't been for their goddam BAD LUCK with record labels going bust or records getting indiscriminately banned etc. etc. ad nauseum.

I realise that in the clip above they do not particularly stress this but it seems that the banning of Summer Smash has become the go-to background detail for a band who never had a steady line-up, tried to make a gimmick out of being elderly, never fucking toured, made three records in ten years (frequently missing the advertised release date by months if not years), never released a single that wasn't on an album and had a penniless manic depressive with serious drug issues as their main man. I think there's more to their lack of commercial success than "bad luck".

This article is probably the pinnacle of this kind of thing

Totally with you there.

love his hat but loz looks like absolute shit these days

So he goes on the one show dressed like he used to in Denim.

Well, that's what they were talking about.

xpost I don't think that piece suggests it was all bad luck. Surely lots of the things listed are catastrophic misjudgments?

They were not one of the 0.001% of musicians who make it huge. So what? Who cares? I followed this band from the beginning and it never even crossed my mind that that they were competing for chart positions and TOTP appearances.

By the standards of the kind of people who liked them, I think they had a pretty good career actually. The stature of the band entirely rests upon the superb music that is contained within "Back In Denim" and "Denim On Ice". They are more than that but that should be enough. Everything they released was fantastic and still stands up today, they garnered critical acclaim that few bands achieve, didn't release anything that was aesthetically half-assed (great design, covers, concepts, clothes etc), did BBC sessions, appeared on TV, toured in Europe, even played a couple of stadium gigs with Pulp. That's a career that 99% of bands would die for.

I doubt that "Summer Smash" would have been a big hit anyway. It would have been their worst single had it ever been released. And what is the point of even speculating about this anyway? Would history have been different if they had had a single novelty hit? I'm reminded of the Dickies, who had 9 hits in the UK in the space of about 2 years. Following this, they were hampered by drug issues, bad business decisions, revolving door line-ups, quickly returning to impoverished obscurity, putting out patchy albums for decades, endlessly touring with their first two albums making up the bulk of their set. I suspect this would have been the fate for Denim, had they ever had a splash of mainstream success. Instead we got Go-Kart Mozart who I consider to be absolute genius.

Happy birthday!

For whatever reason I thought he'd be older. Happy birthday Lawrence.

Aw, happy birthday Lawrence, <3 you so much! Poem of the River for all time!

one of those bands where the interviews and conceptual stuff rivals their actual output!

have you guys heard this?? http://dominorad.io/show/lawrence_from_felt\\
i've a link to it if you wanna listen! so great!

Yeah his radio show was great.

proper link to show: http://archive.dominorad.io/lawrencefelt.mp3

was pleasantly surprised to learn that his musical tastes coincide rather eerily with mine. shack, dexys, prefab sprout fantastic something? sheesh, get out of town, loz!!

of course made a mental note to investigate win (whose existence i had been oompletely ignorant of) and sudden sway (all i had known of them was their evolution peel sessions) (he claimed during the broadcast that they were his favorite artists of the nineties!)

The two Win albums are very good.

i kind of stayed up all night a few weeks ago the first time i heard them. one of those things, like friends again, where i was like 'why didn't my obsessive record collector friends who were keyed into eighties uk pop tell me about this waaaaay earlier???'

makes me wish bimble were still here, b/c he was the sort that would post space blues on his blog and be like almost apologizing for the obviousness of it, like "of course this is basic cultural literacy for civilized ppl"

like lawrence playing wild swans... almost a tossed-off gesture

has anyone read that slim jc brouchard volume, ballad of the fan?

I wonder how he is celebrating?

Just got a copy of "Forever Breathes the Lonely Word", which Felt record should I get next?

poem of the river

really think so much of the genius of lawrence was his uncanny prescience

like making a weird moog record in 88

or taking cues from singer-songwriters like hazlewood, hardin, neil that it took almost a decade for critical consensus (at least in the circles he traveled in) to catch up with

he just made a bunch of records in accord with his affections at a given moment, and they still hold up 25 years or more later.

by and large his conceptual ambitions dwarf his contemporaries on cherry red and creation imo

thanks!

@ Neil, get "The Strange Idols Pattern and other stories". Deebank-era Felt is very different (and to my taste, superior) to Duffy-era Felt. Though "Poem of the River" is brilliant.

NP: "Synthesizers in the Rain"

thanks again!

i don't know how i feel aboot you cherry red ppl!

poem, pictorial jackson, forever, and the 12"'s are all time for me

dig the cherry red stuff,sure, but in general prefer the creation years when he gradually ironed out the pretentiousness from his system more or less lyrically and began to take cues from boring dylan years + alan mcgee pep talks + his own secret muses which were obv. working overtime in the late 80's

like pictorial is x number of songs played quickly, recorded quickly

no stagnant pools or semipiternal darkness or whatever

just candles in a church and autumn martin duffy exercises and lawrence telling it like it is while you're candy flipping

"or taking cues from singer-songwriters like hazlewood, hardin, neil that it took almost a decade for critical consensus (at least in the circles he traveled in) to catch up with"

did he know ivo at 4AD at all or anyone at cherry red, because those people were all about that stuff back then. though i guess people who run labels aren't the same as critics.

he did a single with liz frazier (sic) so i can imagine he would know 4ad people

someone i knew ruined my Goldmine Trash LP by melting candlewax on it, never got over it

Ennh, Duffy was such a disappointing replacement for Deebank. I love those later albums, for sure, and would rate "Poem" and "Forever" over "Crumbling" and "Ignite", but Duffy's organ sounds stoopid in comparison to Deebank's endlessly winding majesty. And personally I love the pairing of Deebank with Laurence's "I don't know how to sing"-early style, i.e. "The World is as Soft as Lace"

like, i think the irony is, that at the time onlookers were probably like 'this is the apex of huddling in a closet bedsit music' but if you actually go back and listen to it it's far more psychedelic material than the furthest reaches of the mancunian pill chapterhouse. mebbe i'm totally wrong, but i feel like lawrence grokked so many angles of psyche music that were played around with late eighties/dawn of the nineties. he labored with the burden of incorporating the eventual hangover and so forth w/o dwindling down into empty stabs at nihilism or broken hedonism. he recapitulated tom rush et al, and i think in a fundamentally worthwhile manner

i have my own problems with directions that he took blah blah blah, but...pretty sure that bubblegum perfume is in the running for best album art ever.

Neil, yeah get Poem of the River. If the long instrumental sections grab you then go for Splendour of Fear (the best Deebank-era record imo). If you prefer the shorter songs from Forever Breathes then go for Strange Idols Pattern.

scott, dunno, just going by old interview with him circa '87 where they cite his prominently displayed record collection. a friend of mine was friends w/ivo, and his quote on lawrence was something like, 'oh, he's a really unhappy person', which i guess rings true with the portrayal of him in the Creation book, which makes him sound like a depresso

bubblegum perfume is in the running for best album art ever.

I would agree, if it read "songs from the cherry red years" ;)

theres an interview from that felt fanzine of a few years ago where he's talking about the primitive painters / 7 canons phase and not being able to afford the services of envelope 23 but getting some mates of vaughn oliver to turn in a 4ad knockoff sleeve. I imagine he must have ben almost part of the 4ad crew by proxy at that point. it seems like he was mostly just obsessed with elektra in the phase running up to forever breathes the lonely word.

yeah he was! let the snakes and some of the other creation artwork is william s harvey tribute all the way

not joking about poem of the river btw. my favorite record by them. ya could probably sustain yrself for a day or two on portions of it.

did a quick check on deebank and looks like he did two solo records, years apart- anyone heard them?

Felt discography with great sleeve scans.

i've heard inner thought zone, it's about as good as the title implies

heard the first one. it's...like the more indulgent moments of felt's cherry red catalog. not unpleasant by any means, but not something i'd get super-excited over i guess

ah well, thanks

i go back and forth w/felt. like sometimes i'm like eh, insufferably pretentious and possibly twee in all the wrong ways

but then i listen to riding on the equator or stained-glass windows with fresh ears and meditate on the bubblegum perfume artwork and i'm like "fuggetaboutit,,,these guys..."

or like "dark red birds". it's just some guy muttering over organ stabs and someone playing the most boring ersztz nick drake guitar parts ever. and somehow it adds up to the greatest sunday morning or friday night song ever. all-purpose conciliatory vibes and more

@ brownie, if you own Absolute Classic Masterpieces, there is a Maurice Deebank solo track on there ("Dance Of Deliverance"). It sounds like Pink Floyd.

no i don't have it, but will look for it

i like pink floyd well enough

xpost So in love with Elektra they did this ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1F6Dj_jCLs

You know on that Big Star box, where all the reviewers commented on how no one at the show on the live disc appeared to be listening to the band. I see your Big Star and raise you Felt in 1987 in Greenock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q66mrCKV6k

i don't understand why of all the beach boys to cover he did 'be still' but hey it works

so lawrence to do that

his cover bests the original imo

Do many of y'all have "Absolute Classic Masterpieces Vol. 2"? I believe it was a Japan-only release but it's 2 discs of the Duffy era that's so well chosen it stands helps build the case vis-a-vis the Deebank era.

I've got ACMv2, would have to dig in the cd boxes but I'm pretty sure it's a Creation issue, sleeve design to match vol 1 but in white rather than grey. I'd have a hard time choosing between the two eras, tbh; the Deebank stuff (esp. The Splendour of Fear) has moments of utterly transporting magnificence ("The Stagnant Pool" in particular), but I do really love the poppier Hammond ie. Duffy driven sound. I always loved the way they'd intersperse the albums with brilliantly odd EPs as well, I think right until the end Lawrence just did whatever he wanted and as del points out upthread it's taken a couple of decades for people to catch up with him. Best band of the 80s for me, no question.

yeh, i like the creation stuff better, not b/c i think its inherently "better", but more that i think around that time he took cues from classic canonical singer-songwriters and heartily embraced that role, as opposed to merely enterprising to be a quirky-ish indie band. "she lives by the castle", sheesh, it could have been written by willie nelson or somebody. so impressive

Most of the back catalogue showed up on Spotify fairly recently so I've been rediscovering loads of Felt in the office and kitchen at home (where I do majority of Spotify listening). Can state categorically that no type of work or cooking related activity is not improved by blasting "I Will Die With My Head In Flames" and "Ballad of the Band" on repeat play.

Totally love Poem too though, dig Lawrence's insistence on Television style crediting of the guitar solos on a track-by-track basis. Think my fave bit is the soloing on "Riding on the Equator", could listen to that all day.

yes!

Had an extremely pleasurable morning of compiling and ripping all Felt single and EP tracks into a single playlist.

Three of my favourite Deebank-era songs were non-album singles ("Something Sends Me To Sleep", "My Face Is On Fire", and "Penelope Tree", which is probably my favourite Felt song).

The Duffy-era singles are mostly very dark and sinister, fantastic. "The Final Resting of the Ark" 12" and "Space Blues" 12" are just great. Terrific songs cut with Sakamoto-esque CP-70 instrumentals from Martin Duffy.

I hope he did something nice: Bob, Pete and Sarah popped round with a bottle of Malibu and some antiseptic wipes or something ...

My only complaint with "Absolute Classic Masterpieces Vol. 2" is they left off "September Lady", "All The People I Like Are Those That Are Dead" and "I Can't Make Love To You Anymore". Granted, they weren't singles, but still. I added them to my digital version. ;-)

If I have Abso Classic Master 2 do I need Bubblegum Perfume?

I hope he did something nice: Bob, Pete and Sarah popped round with a bottle of Malibu and some antiseptic wipes or something ...

lol

they gave him a vacuum cleaner with ape hangers

If I have Abso Classic Master 2 do I need Bubblegum Perfume

I don't think so, the two ACM comps cover everything every other Felt comp has.

bubblegum perfume is a weird compilation. it hits all the b-sides to 12" material, which, granted is great! but it misses many of the "hits" from their albums, like september lady or castle or whatever

This is a really hard band to compile.

true

The original version of Bubblegum version contains the same non-album tracks as ACM2. However, the recently reissued version of BP replaces three of the album tracks with single tracks that haven't been on cd before.

xxp I think BP was intended as a "pop" album which is why there's no long tracks.

I'd suggest tracking down the following non-LP tracks, most of which are on the comps (some are not, i.e. "My Face Is On Fire", "Sunlight Strings")

"Ballad Of The Band"
"I Didn't Mean To Hurt You"
"Ferdinand Magellan"
"The Final Resting Of The Ark"
"There's No Such Thing As Victory"
"My Face Is On Fire"
"Penelope Tree"
"Something Sends Me To Sleep"
"Space Blues"
"Sunlight Strings"

And the LPs.

Essential:

"The Strange Idols Patter and other Short Stories"
"The Splendour Of Fear"
"Forever Breathes The Lonely Word"
"Poem Of The River"

Underrated:

"The Pictorial Jackson Review"

Good:

"Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty"
"Ignite The Seven Cannons"

A few good tracks:

"Me and a Monkey on the Moon"

Non-essential organ-led instrumental albums:

"Let the Snakes Crinkle their Heads to Death"
"Train Above the City"

Felt - Pick Only 27

lol

i love pictorial to death. so perfect

he's alternately lou reed and dylan like coney island baby / just like tom's thumb's blues vibe. to me, anyway

@ scott "No (single)? Madness!" vs. "No (instrumental)? Madness!"

Pictorial Jackson is the worst for me ... the instrumentals are great but some of the the songs seem half-done. Production is dull too.

yeah, it may as well be a recording of demos or whatever, but i love it. the first few seconds of ivory past alone, wow

i love the way the lyrics are so defeatist and contrarian and bitter but then every fourth line or so a glimmer of genuine wisdom puts in an appearance even through the resignation and life-sickness

i mean in the album as a whole

i own 20+ felt releases on vinyl and i still feel like i won't be able to die happy until i own all the japanese pressings of the albums. cuz i'm sick like that.

i just thought of that looking at that page of releases.

plus the japanese releases have inserts that didn't come with u.k. pressings.

I posted this a month ago on another thread:

I remember walking down Parkway in Camden. I was walking on the street and he pulled me onto the curb and actually shouted at me. "A rock star can not be killed by a black cab or a mini cab." I was just drunk, but it stuck with me. Being killed by a cab would just not be good enough for me or for Lawrence… in his eyes of course.

i don't really care what that guys thinks about felt, but i read that anyway. when it was posted before.

the moptop guy. the oasis guy or whatever.

wow, what a great interview, thanks. agree with him that martin duffy is a genius.

also, lol at that quote. so fitting i guess

is weird and saddening that he wrote a song chastising a junkie and then became one. oh well. life

'New Day Dawning' could be their soul/Stax masterpiece, and 'Free' is pure gospel Aretha.

listening to live shows, there truly were a lot of moments where they sounded like booker t and the mg's!!

man i love forever breathes, the heavily reverbed guitars and the organ-driven renderings of his songs, but the background vox never worked for me.

i love the backing vocals on forever breathes the lonely word, and in fact pretty much all felt, esp. the re-recording of fortune on gold mine trash, lawrence can always use a vocal foil. fbtlw is flawless , it's so fussy though! i was listening to the andy kershaw radio session the other day, and it is to be honest a bit of a shocker, rain of crystal spires in particular is all over the shop, rhythm section way up the mix, guitar bits tripping over each other, vocals off key, it exudes a strong we're playing this for the first time vibe, but it all sound so effortless on the lp! that session has the only studio version of when the dawn comes creeping in too which you get the impression could have wound up pretty great had it been done justice.

Does anyone know the original proposed running order of the original poem of the river? thats always intrigued me, i know i can't make love to you any more was supposed to be on it, but the recording didn't work out, but i seem to recall some others were scrapped too, and silver plane was cooked up in a hurry to fill the gap.

poem of the river is the last perfect album for me, i get almost as annoyed by the underproduction of pictorial jackson review as the overproduction of ignite the seven canons these days. While the former is a great record, it's galling that mcgee wouldn't shell out for a proper production, i assumed that it was lawrence's decision to bash out something rough and ready, but it somehow makes all the difference that he though they were demos. it's kindof fun to hear felt being scrappy, but you get the feeling with a bit of gloss and depth it could have equalled forever breathes lonely word.

for all the oddity in his catalogue, the real anomaly for me is me and a monkey on the moon. it's like he's saying this is the band we could have been all along if we'd played it straight. it has grown on me in recent years, partly as he's great at writing really straight lyrics, as evidenced by denim, but some of those guitar solos do bother me....

hmm yeah

me and a monkey has never taken root with me as much as it could in theory

can't believe silver plane was a rushed-off filler track! so wonderful and dylanesque

not sure what the original running order was, just know that when the dawn... was supposed to appear on it

yeah, for being such fundamentally well-crafted songs, it is a little frustrating that the production on pictorial jackson review is not there...but i still love it to death. it's that and "poem" for me.

yeah silver plane is great. it makes sense that it came quickly though, it just glides along.

the monkeying about with bubblegum perfume bothers me a bit too, mostly because female star is manifestly not a great felt song and this is probably my single favourite felt artefact. i have three copies. maybe i need to make that four now. the sleeve proofs (very heavily) annotated by lawrence that were reprinted in the foxtrot fanzine are priceless though, yeah lawrence's design eye is dead on. mercilessly so.

It's funny how the instrumental records are generally dismissed as inessential, crinkle in particular is an amazing record. people seem more inclined to approve of these kind of ventures when they're interspersed with pop songs or on b sides. i suppose thats understandable.

yeah i've spent a lot of time with crinkle and train...

shit i need to check out that foxtrot thing.

even if one hates felt's actual music, can't imagine dismissing the artwork out of hand. i mean...

naw, it's lawrence's critique of the rework in progress of the bubblegum sleeve for the reissue, it's classic passive aggressive art direction, i mean it's great, everything he says is absolutely spot on. and theres some additional comments written on homeless shelter headed stationery.

that fanzine is worth checking out, the best bit is an previously unpublished interview from 1986, but there is a wealth of good stuff in there.

ha, oh loz...

I've a vague idea that I picked up a free Felt flexi in Our Price, Watford - I think around Me and a Monkey ...

yeah, get out of the mirror so i can see, i think that was their farewell gift to an indifferent world

this is a bit adrift, but i picked up heidi berry's firefly a little while ago, martin duffy is all over it, i think it's from '87 and it is pretty great, very reminiscent of poem of the river in a weird lady singer songwritery way.

What are the three unique-to-CD tracks on Bubblegum Perfume? Bcuz eMusic has it, so I can just cherry pick those tracks.

Did some checking about "Goldmine Trash":
"Dismantled King" and "Sunlight Bathed" are demos unique to "Goldmine Trash". Interesting but hardly critical.
"Fortune" is the re-recorded version which originally appeared on the "Sunlight Bathed" single.

luv Goldmine Trash, as a midwestern american that LP was the only "best of"

halfway through these new answers

This is a such a great thread, I never get tired of reading about this band.

I fell in love with Lawrence when I bought Denim On Ice when it came out and for a while it was my favourite album of all time. Over the last few years I've started to enjoy Back In Denim a bit more. It seems quite split to which people prefer of the two. I love Felt more as a whole but those two albums are really up there with his very best work.

As for Felt my two favourites have always been Strange Idol Patterns and Forever breathes The Lonely Word. They both represent what was great about both eras of the band. I can never really pick which era I like more, The Deebank years had Primitive Painters but the Duffy Years gave us Space Blues. Truly one of the greatest bands I can think of.

One of the things that fascinated - and fascinates me - about Felt was the discrepancy between the quality and the quantity of the love for them. Most people I meet know nothing about them; those who do love them. That was true at the time: when they did their final tour I got my ticket for the Leeds gig as soon as it went on sale, convinced it would be a rapid sellout. In fact, there were about 50 people there.

Maybe they're one of those groups that depended on a moment of conversion to make fans - was anyone ever aware of the group for ages ad gradually fell for them, or was it always a single lightbulb moment? Was definitely the latter for me, and it's still vivid in my mind - being really miserable one teenage Saturday afternoon, and browsing in Our Price looking for something to cheer me up: I found cassette with Seven Cannons on one side and Strange Idols on the other. And when I got it home I couldn't believe something like this existed: it was the only music I'd ever heard that merited the description "courtly" - as much for Deebank's guitar as for the titles. And I loved that Lawrence's voice sounded just like mine did to me when I heard tapes of myself - awkward and out of place.

My favourite Lawrence story (I may have posted this elsewhere; if so - sorry): At one of his 90s low points, Alan McGee took pity and gave him a job as a receptionist at Creation. Unfortunately Lawrence had no knowledge of switchboard systems, or interest in gaining it. So when a call came in, he would ask the caller to hold, walk through to find whoever it was for, then bring them back to reception to either take the call there or transfer it to their own phone themselves.

Jon Lewis:
Tuesday's Secret replaces A Wave Crashed on Rocks.
Female Star replaces Declaration.
Fire Circle replaces Gather Up Your Wings and Fly.

If anyone here wants the original Bubblegum Perfume cd I'll send it to them for nothing.

I had been aware of Felt for years, heard them but Lawrence's voice didn't work for me. Then a few years back I had the strongest urge to hear "Primitive Painters" and much to my surprise I didn't have it anywhere. So I picked up the Cherry Red "Ambition" compilation and borrowed the ACM compilations from a friend. Well! At that point it all changed for me, though I still find most of the albums inconsistent vs those singles comps. But, oh, the high points are VERY high.

I'd read about Felt around the time they broke up and was intrigued by their story though not enough to pick up the records. When ACM was released a couple of years later I got that and fell in love with it, subsequently getting all the Cherry Red albums. I didn't bother looking for the later records as I figured without Deebank something had to have been lost. A while later there was the article and interview with Lawrence in Record Collector which convinced me to get Bubblegum Perfume which I found to be every bit as good as ACM, inspiring me to hunt down everything else I could find by them.

Getting BP was my lightbulb moment.

yah, for me too

Gold Mine Trash was my introduction and the gateway drug for the rest. I read about it in a copy of Q magazine (!) that I purchased whilst in the airport heading for a school exchange visit to Nurnberg, and their 4-star review piqued my interest enough to make me seek it out on my return; I bought the cassette version with a side of extra instrumentals taken from their earlier releases. The 1985 release date ties in with this so I would have been approaching 14 by the time I got hold of it. I was still pretty wet behind the ears with regards to "indie" then and settling into a deep love for The Cure, but I remember being really blown away by GMT and in fact the demo versions on there as mentioned ("Sunlight Bathed..." etc) I still regard as the definitive takes. Per ithappens post, once I'd heard Felt I loved them immediately and started buying everything by them as it came out, along with the back catalogue.

I found the Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty/The Splendour of Fear CD used at Amoeba when visiting SF, and I knew before I heard a note exactly what it would sound like, like I'd heard it in a dream. I was exactly right.

http://www.secondlanguagemusic.com/news.html

Second Language is proud to unveil two short films, recently shot by director Paul Kelly, in which Pete Astor, erstwhile Weather Prophet and Loft-leading luminary of Creation Records' initial onslaught, back in the mid-'80s, and the voice and songwriter behind the just-released Songbox (SL013), is grilled by Lawrence, of Felt, Denim and Go Kart Mozart fame.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/films/new_british_cinema/1731

AWWWW SHIT

finally!

so is he a junkie now? those pics make him look awful.

I hope not. I am looking forward to the documentary; I've been listening to a lot of Denim lately and relishing in the hardcore bitterness of the lyrics.

Hoping the new Go-Kart Mozart actually comes out this year, as I hoped in 2009 and 2010. :(

so is he a junkie now? those pics make him look awful.

― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, September 8, 2011 5:16 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

seems like he was from 96 to about 06-08 but he now seems to be clean

Silver Plane has just hit me like a train. now number 1. sorryz forever breathes.

*Poem Of The River now number 1

any haterz can suck it imo. Ignite The Seven Cannons still kinda sucky though

^ Ignite Seven Cannons is great. "Primitive Painters" is the problem

"Problem"?! If that's the problem, don't give me the solution!

i want to hear PrimPntrs (and the rest of Ignite) without RGuthrie. he is the problem, imho.

Yes PP is they're biggest hit etc. but it's too reverbed out and five minutes too long

argh, 'their'

This is crazy talk. "Primitive Painters" is a jewel amongst jewels, both for Guthrie's production and the length of it. Hell, if it was 15 minutes long it'd still be too short!

If you say so. When I want to listen to Cocteau Twins, I put on Cocteau Twins. When I want to listen to Lawrence and co., I prefer to do so without a layer of chorused and MIDIVerb on top.

^ yes. but why would you want to listen to the Cocteau Twins?

because i have a soul

so, it would seem there is another band with the name Go Kart Mozart (note the absence of the hyphen) and what is up with THAT?
http://www.gokartmozart.com/

i mean, who seriously decides on a band name without googling it first to make sure no-one's already using it....

excited to say the least by the book:

http://www.firstthirdbooks.com/previewthebook.php

also a very nice cover of sunlight bathed the golden glow by real estate:

http://feltadeclaration.tumblr.com/

saw the movie tonight and really enjoyed it

on the hot dog streets LP in january and a mini-album a few months later

Has this been recently confirmed about the new albums? I'm sure they were definitely supposed to be coming out the end of last year. It's been too long since the last album.

lawrence gave me the above info earlier tonight

blimey, a hundred bucks to get that book sent to me? oof. and they've only reached 20% of their printing goal? whatever that means.

how many people have to order the damn thing before they can print it?

maybe i should print my own in the meantime. everyone just start their own felt fanzine. fuck the book.

I dunno, the book's 40 quid , is that extortionate? i suppose it depends on the production values . £20 overseas postage does sound a little steep though i grant you. the whole pre-order totaliser thing is a bit of tease too, it went up by 1% the day i ordered mine.

the preview makes me drool though, the photographs! the layout! it looks quite a thing to hold in your hands.

The film is getting a screening in glasgow and perhaps elsewhere, someone needs to put it on at the duke of york in brighton.

i just kinda miss the days when elaborate vanity projects were the result of someone having too much money. that way everyone won.

lawrence gave me the above info earlier tonight

― conrad

So happy about this. I still play Tearing Up The Charts a lot.

what's this film you guys speak of? the book looks great.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/20/lawrence-of-belgravia?newsfeed=true

The film was much less depressing than I thought it'd be. Lawrence seems to be on the move again. Spot on about the importance of buttons. During the Q and A section Lawrence talked about 2 new albums set for early next year release. One proper and one mini album. 30 new tracks.

Wow, that's great news. I know at least a few tracks from Denim Take Over are going to be on there (Lawrence mentioned "Robot Voice" and "Men Look at Women," plus the album title is the first line of "West Brom Blues"), but 30 songs means a lot of new stuff.

Think Denim Take Over is pretty easy to find online if anyone hasn't heard it. Bad quality though. It'll be nice to hear proper versions of these songs.

Terrific interview with Lawrence on Jarvis Cocker's 6Music show yesterday, with some talk about the film and his career, along with some excellent musical choices. Available on iPlayer until next week:

Lawrence on Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service 30/10/11

this was a good listen - was amazed when lawrence picked slapp happy and henry cow (buzz slightly harshed by jarvis saying something dumb abt 'unlistenable avant-garde rubbish' after the hc)

Plus Lawrence said the track was from 1973, sort of stuff that annoys a pedant like me... and two tracks from the same album too, not a Slapp Happy track and then a Henry Cow track. Win track he played was really good.

yeah i think lawrence actually said he'd got into slapp happy last week or something, which is quite funny in itself.

Just remembered him saying his favourite bands of the 80s were Win and Sudden Sway, :)

Just listening to this now. Such a pleasure, it's really funny as well.

he's very smart/sharp/with it. not at all addled or what have you. not that i thought that he was, but i still think some people like to see him as some sort of outsider/weirdo and he's really not. the only big surprise for me is the tom waits fandom. wouldn't peg him as a fan, but what do i know. never heard Win before despite the fact that i enjoy the fire engines. listened to other stuff on youtube and its possible that they are, um, still to futuristic for me. though i was a fan of prefab sprout and abc when they went bonkers in a future-pop sorta way. and the undertones. and lots of other formerly more serious brit bands.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/video/804

whats that third film he mentions? Pichoult? it rings a bell dimly but i can't place it. i like the story of lawrence dragging phil king along to a screening of 3 women at birmingham uni, on the same visit as the famous pork pie/multi story carpark incident, Phil King had the romantic notion that lawrence inhabited a demi monde of arty sophisticates, but nah, it's just lawrence, weirdy robert altman films, pork pies and the bull ring centre.

pixote?

i found that go kart mozart band (they are in california) last year sometime too; I saw go kart mozart was playing somewhere and was like WTF. and then disappointment. I think I sent them a snide and nasty email they never responded to.

Could anyone upload Denim Take Over, please? And did the b-sides for Summer Smash ever leak?

I found Denim Take Over and the b-sides for Summer Smash here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/3vjd9j

However, the sound quality of Denim Take Over is not good. So again, it would be great if someone could upload this album.

has anyone seen the film yet?

A guy on the Cookdhttp://kkkorner.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/nbomb5.jpg?w=350&h=259d forum leaked Denim Take Over - he said this a few years ago:

'Denim Take Over' had been my musical holy grail for several years, so after spotting Terry Miles on eBay I persuaded seven Denim fans to send me a tenner each in order to pay Terry the £70 he required for transferring 'Denim Take Over' from DAT onto CDR, which I was then able to leak online. However, Lawrence has since claimed that 'Denim Take Over' was never a completed album and existed only as a loose collection of unmastered demos, perhaps confirmed by the appearance of three of its songs on the last Go-Kart Mozart album.

I was like WTF

I saw Lawrence Of Belgravia last month (and met the man himself!) and massively enjoyed it. Felt and Denim content is less to the fore (no archive footage whatsoever), much of the film chronicles Lawrence's period from what was probably his lowest ebb of being evicted from his old flat (though nothing I recall that goes into detail about him being homeless, beyond the obvious allusion to him having bunked at Pete Astor's house) to being rehoused in a new council flat. There's a lot of GKM interview and rehearsal footage and what can only be staged recording sessions for 'On The Hot Dog Streets', featuring several songs from 'Denim Take Over' (the album title comes from the opening line of 'West Brom Blues'). I'd recommend any fan of his to check it out, even those that throw a sulk at the mention of anything post-Felt. You just ought to.

I have mp3s of 'Glitter all Over' and GKM's 'Talk Like Noddy' should anyone want them posted. I'm after 'Novelty Rock (Kid's Portion)' to complete my collection, beyond finding affordable physical copies of Back In Denim and Novelty Rock itself, of course.

I really liked the movie and given that I don't own any of dude's albums or have much investment in him in any way I guess it passes an objectivity test

the director was there to do a Q&A (it was a film festival thingy) and I always scarper before I can get sucked into those things, but I was actually interested in enough of the movie's construction to ask him some stuff - eg the fact that it spans like eight years but you can hardly ever tell whether it's 2003 or 2010 or whatever

(this goes some way to getting across how Lawrence has spent this whole time kind of dropping in and out of life)

http://thequietus.com/articles/07757-lawrence-interview-felt-lawrence-of-belgravia

the book arrived. it's pretty sweet. is anyone going to the rough trade thing? what's that about then? getting a bunch of gamey old codgers together to play records & talk about their glory days doesn't sound very lawrence. is deebank supposed to be going? is it going to be like classicalindie trisha?

Reports at the Felt Tribute site forum.

Some video.

Finally!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/On-The-Hot-Dog-Streets/dp/B007R2X6LE

Didn't think "Denim Take Over" (the song) would ever see the light of day, but looks like it's be revived as "Lawrence Takes Over." Actually, I think all the remaining Denim Take Over songs are here (assuming "The Sun" is "Island in the Sun"). Plus 9 new songs! So excited.

Amazing news. I'm so ready for this album.

will be buying this on cd and lp. would buy it on tape and 8-track too.

will have to find the most reliable u.s. source for this. i want perfectly perfect copies as soon as i can get them.

I Talk With Robot Voice is fantastic. Wonder why he's reusing a bunch of songs from Denim Take Over, though.

New single is available on itunes right now. It's New World In The Morning which was the single he put out for Record Store Day, really wish I'd got a copy of that.

So great to have him back.

Felt feature in this month's Mojo

very excited. saw lawrence of belgravia the other night and all the bits and bobs from the hotdog streets sounded sensational. lawrence's q and a bit afterwards was great fun too. he said his dream with felt was to make people cry, he said his vision was of people leaving felt concerts in floods of tears. which i suspect would have been realised by lawrence of belgravia, had the bleeding projectionist not killed the film 2 minutes before the end, which did rather disarmed the emotional wallop. oh well. it is a very funny film.

I'm interested to hear the new album but it feels like he is drying up creatively. There's his Felt period where they released approx an album each year plus singles for a decade. Then the run of albums from Back In Denim (1992) to Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture (1999) is four proper albums (one double) over 7 years, plus one unreleased album. Those records are all 100% amazing and all show an impressive progression, building on and changing what went before. By my count that's more than 60 songs that he wrote and recorded over this time, even if you exclude squiggly little instrumental bits etc.

In the 13 years since then, he's released one album, which used a hefty amount of material written in the 90s, and which was (IMHO) a regression from Instant Wigwam. It failed to impress a strong identity as a album like the previous ones did, and used many of the same tricks and ideas from Instant Wigwam and Novelty Rock but in a less creative way. And now another album of 9 new songs and the rest written a decade and a half ago.

I've been with his a long time and it's never felt like he's tremendously prolific but for me, the news that this new album has so much old stuff on it is a bit of a downer.

i'm just happy he does anything at all. he doesn't have to do anything at all. i like it all. probably the only musician i've been listening to for years that i am even excited about. as far as new material goes. though i was happy to get the latest mark robinson album in the mail last week...

Okay fair enough, we have numerous fantastic albums of yore to enjoy. But would you agree that Tearing Up The Album Charts not one of his greatest acheivements? Three or four excellent tracks but not a great album. I feel like this new one is going to be Tearing Up The Album Charts vol 2.

its true i didn't listen to the last one as much as i listened to instant wigwam, but its still a really funny record! and singular and totally him and i'm really glad i have it.

He said in the Mark Radcliffe interview from a few days ago that this and the mini-LP are to clear up all the GKM material and I'm assuming the entire 'novelty' period. It's not too surprising he hasn't been as prolific considering what he's been through since the late 90s.

His next project, the mysterious, dark 'singer-songwriter' thing that's being whispered about - containing lyrics written while sleeping rough - can only be interesting, should it materialise.

I doubt he has the desire or the balls to release a dark singer-songwriter thing. Unless it is actually a pisstake.

i mean if you want to talk about diminishing returns, we can talk about almost everyone else i was listening to in the 80's who wasn't lawrence.

I prefer if the people I like keep releasing stuff regularly, even if the quality is uneven. Almost everyone who waits 5 years or more between releases has lost the plot and it usually shows.

xxpost He's been mentioning it occasionally in radio interviews and Q&As recently. He said it won't emerge if the new GKM is "a hit".

He's been cagey about exactly what it will entail, but said people will be likely to "reference Felt"

nah i believe in the post novelty rock / reflective album, he was talking about it on monday, he claims he has all the songs written.

i dunno, the bits from the film suggest a denim on ice style opus, more ambitous than the last one, i have high hopes for it & there's mini lp out straight after . i think the lack of activity has to do with other factors than creative aridity.

plus, tearing up the album charts is a bit of a stunner on the quiet, maybe not as much of an jaw dropping experience as wigwam, but in terms of the sharpness of the songs i think it surpasses it. donna and the dope fiends! electric rock and roll! transgressions!

i don't think the likelihood of lawrence creating a great record has anything to do with his grasp on the plot...

"the plot" for him has usually been to create an album with a specific concept, a feel, a unified package with the songs sharing some important common elements, sounds, themes etc. To write songs that complement the specific and unique group of musicians that are brought together to record the album. And to package it accordingly.

The problem with the last album was that it felt like a random collection of songs that collectively had no identity. Packaging was nothing special either.

hmm yeah i dunno i feel like this record promises to be properly odd, uncomfortable, obtuse & a bit like brumburger on a budget, i think the lack or resources kindof forces lawrence in on himself.

in terms of recycling denim take over (which i've never heard!) he has always insisted that he would never waste a song. plus the older songs on the last one were in no way the best. but yeah the overarching concept wasn't there.

Yeah since I was think that out loud, he's gone on the record explaining upcoming releases will be clearing the decks for this particular 'novelty' era, so it kind of makes sense.... Though at the time I was watching the film, it was confusing to see him pretending to record songs which had been recorded in the late 90s.

I wonder where Denim ends and GKM really begins, though. Probably seeing Denim as the 'major label' band and GKM as the 'b-side band'. The Denim take over stuff is definitely closer to Denim On Ice than Novelty Rock or Instant Igloo, though. 'The Sun' sounded very polished (with some new overdubs) on Mark Radcliffe's show the other day. Songwriting-wise, not too removed from a certain kind of Felt pop sound, either.

*thinking

I should wait and hear the new one before getting too judgemental I guess. For artists like Laurence, albums have always been more than just a collection of tracks and since we are now in this post-album world, that again may be a problem with Tearing Up The Album Charts. It's the only one of his albums which I do not own a physical copy of. I've never seen the real cover. I've probably only listened to it straight through once or twice.

Then the run of albums from Back In Denim (1992) to Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture (1999) is four proper albums (one double) over 7 years

more like 10 years. back in denim was at least a couple of years in the making before it's final release. not that this changes your point you're making.

I'm so surprised people seem to prefer Instant Wigwam to Tearing Up The Charts. Always thought Wigwam was like a bunch of novelty B-sides with a few proper songs thrown in, kind of exactly like Novelty Rock. We're Selfish Lazy & Greedy, Here is a Song and Mrs. Back to Front are the only songs I really go back to on there. Tearing Up felt more like a real album to me with some of his best songwriting. Glorious Chorus, Listening to Marmalade and City Centre are up there with his best. The only track that seems a bit throwaway is Building Site and that's just too much fun.

plenty of treasure on both albums. i listened to Tearing Up tons when i bought it, but for some reason i do go back to wigwam more often. i think they compliment each other nicely though.

Did you preorder the new album already Scott? Limited signed vinyl copies available.

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/westmidlands-exd.asp?id=3681

Kitchen, you don't like Sailor Boy? I'm not a huge Go Kart Mozart person, but that song is unmatchable

Anyways, I guess there has been talk of him doing a singer-songwriter project forever. It was supposed to be his "Berlin". I guess the story is that in the late nineties Alan McGee wanted to put out a record by him, but only if it was in that mold as opposed to the novelty stuff.

I think it could be really amazing to hear him working in that particular idiom once again, but hoping that it would be more like Poem of the River-era Felt as opposed to some of the serious songs on Denim on Ice eg Don't Bite Too Much Out of the Apple, Myriad of Hoops

has this been posted here? it's so good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_bO-NcuMBw

"two drummers and a couple of sax/ i think he's headed for the cut-price racks"

So this isn't supposed to be out till June 25th but I just noticed Amazon.com are already selling it. Anyone ordered it yet?

http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Dog-Streets-Kart-Mozart/dp/B007R2X6LE/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1339685465&sr=1-1

Six of the listed songs are on "Denim takes over", you know.

There's some discussion about that upthread ;)

Oops, sorry! I'm recycling like Lawrence :)

xxp eight

ah, I figure after never really repeating himself with Felt he deserves to be cut a bit of slack in his dotage...

The only songs I've heard from Denim Take Over are the title track and the ones that ended up on Tearing Up The Album Chart so to me this is like a whole new album. Wonder if he still plans to release that mini album in a few months too?

I heard it was shelved.

Got my copy (from Amazon) a few days ago. New overdubs (and in some cases new lyrics) and better quality mean the Denim Take Over songs sound a lot more vital here. And the non-DTO songs kick ass too, especially White Stilettos in the Sand, Spunky Axe, and Electrosex. Whoever said upthread that they were expecting this to be more of a Denim on Ice-style epic was right on. It's funny, before I heard it, I was thinking I didn't draw much of a line between GKM and Denim (post-Back in Denim, anyway), but this definitely feels more like a Denim album. Much bigger sound than either of the previous GKM records.

Album of the year

Only played this a couple of times, have to say I'm a bit disappointed. Something about the production that is a little messy in places. I thought this would be Denim On Ice part two but the songs are lacking something. Really hope this is a grower, those first two Denim albums are two of my favourite albums ever.

Ah yeah, those are two of the best albums ever, so I'm not really surprised this isn't quite at their level. But as much as I like the other GKM albums, I'm really appreciating the grandiosity of this one. Can see what you mean about some of the production messiness, but the songs are there imo.

I think after all the waiting I was expecting a bit more from the album. I have no doubt it will grow on me but I'm pretty sure all the Denim and GKM albums were really instant with me. It is really nice to have him back though, can't believe it's been seven years since the last album.

This album is really very good. Early days, but probably my fave of the GKM records (recycled or not!).

Lots of "funny" here, but... as with Sparks, the songs seem just as harrowing as they are humorous (often at the same time).
Like "I Talk With Robot Voice" is funny, but...

That make any sense?

Two thirds through the new CD and it sounds to me like the peak of of GKM and the natural successor to Denim On Ice in terms of sound and songwriting.

What was due to appear on the mini album? If OTHDS uses up all the the remaining Denim Take Over songs, then what's left?

Think the mini album is supposed to have New World in the Morning on it. Not sure what else...more new stuff I guess.

This has grown on me a lot. It's not the masterpiece I was hoping for but I'm getting a lot more out of now. I really think it could do without a lot of those extra vocals especially at the end of The Sun and the shouting in Come On You Lot, it sounds a bit clumsy in places. Some songs and moments sound a bit too similar to those on Denim On Ice especially when the kids choir comes in and he says solo for the solo in one song. I think White Stilettos In The sand and Retro Glancing are my two favourites at the moment but it keeps changing.

Hope the mini album still comes out soon, I think it is supposed to follow three months later but I'll believe it when I see it especially as these were both supposed to be out years ago.

yeah the toasting on the sun is horrid, but the rest of this is a total triumph. total lawrence.

I really wonder what Lawrence's distinction between Denim and GKM is these days. This album sounds like it should say 'Denim' on the cover.

and while there may not be any 'hit singles' on here, I could easily imagine 6Music playlisting 'Retro-Glancing' or 'Electrosex' if they had any taste left

Greetings from Denmark. Great to have Lawrence back with a superb album. He has not lost his grip despite all the hardship he seems to have been through. Personally I prefer the new songs (especially, Electro Sex, White Stilettoes..., Come On... and Retro-Glancing), but it's kind of Lawrence to include the last unreleased Denim Take Over songs for his longtime fans. Anyway, the Denim and GKM songs blend together well (like the 70s and 80s retro aesthetics of the cover), and in this way the album is a perfect way for him to say goodbye to his "mustard" period of the last 20 years (cf. some of the latest interviews) - although I'm not sure I want him to do that, especially not when, as is the case on ...Hot Dog Streets, the material is consistently good (i.e. not silly, grating or anonymous).

Well, so much for my opinion, here's a question I hope someone can help me with: What's Mickie Made the Most about, i.e. who are all those people mentioned? I've been googling some of them, but I'm not sure I've been on the right track.

Actually, any thoughts on the the lyrics of the album and insight into their references would be much appreciated.

Definitely Michael Head of Shack, for one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rak_Records

Mentioned: Mickie Most, Ricky Wilde, RAK Records, Mick Head, Gary Shaw. Wikipedia can tell you who they are but knowing doesn't necessarily help explain what the song is about.

Just another collection of Lawrence icons.

I think it's a bit of a "kids these days" rant. ie. back in our day we had great icons like Mickey Most and Gary Shaw, now the kids just go the club and come back and play FPS games. It's a rewrite of "City of the Dead" from Denim Takes Over which emphasises this theme a bit more.

New interview:

http://thequietus.com/articles/09948-lawrence-interview-felt-go-kart-mozart

it's a good 'un. Lawrence is very open about certain things, other stuff not so much.

"What happened to young Gary Shaw?
Played for the Villa
He don't play for them no more"

Any word on that GKM mini album? There was a now-show 6music session a couple of months back, which was annoying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PWxmU37HU0

Not concerned with fame, huh....

wow never seen that before. hideous shirt, I assume that was 88-89? i wonder if there's any more where that came from.

MOJO reporting on Mozart’s Mini-Mart.

The big track on the record? That would be When You’re Depressed. The lyrics feature the lines, “Never cry, never laugh / Don’t clean your teeth, don’t have a bath / This constant strain, this constant stress / When you’re depressed… you’re depressed.”

“It’s special,” says Lawrence. “One of those career-defining songs.”

Wow, kind of figured this might never come out, and now it's a 19-song album with a song called ‘I Am The Sardonic Lucifer With A Fifty Foot Wingspan’

Excited but would be surprised if it actually came out this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ0It3uOrkA

Never seen this before.

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/8-13-2013/ZgqU9L.gif

Lawrence of Belgravia showing in LA.

Please bring out the DVD now Lawrence!

http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/159164032/felt-primitive-painters-lyric-typography?ref=shop_home_active

I spent a long time thinking the lyric was 'dragons loaf by, angels fly' and was disappointed when I realised he was singing 'blow fire'.
Don't thing Lawrence would approve of the font on that print, somehow.

Also, looking at the print again it says 'will you be sorry when I've gone', I thought he sang 'but you'll be sorry when I'm gone', was I wrong about that as well?

ugly poster.

i've always heard "gathering in galleries, we're stallions of imagery" but the internet says otherwise. on the manics version he sings "we're".

aha, i just found the lyrics printed in the absolute classics masterpieces compilation and he does say "we're".

"will you be sorry when i've gone" is the correct lyric

Anybody heard anything about the Felt albums being reissued? I want to start buying them on LP but they're fairly expensive.

is this something you've heard about or just wishful thinking? there's no reissue news that i know of...

It's wishful thinking. I'm looking around for Felt LPs and considering forking out between 30-50 bucks for a few of my most wanted LPs but I wanted to ask if anybody had heard anything about them in line to get reissued before I made a decision. It would probably take about $400-500 to buy all 10 albums on Discogs right now.

Not heard anything about vinyl reissues. I have all those CD reissues from 2003/4 (some of which are already out of print) but I would buy vinyl copies if they came out straight away. I managed to get copies of Back in Denim on Denim on Ice on vinyl in the last couple of years (cost me about $40 for both) but I've had to stop myself from looking into Felt records because as you say it would end up costing a lot.

I try not to spend too much on vinyl copies of out of print albums now as record companies seem to be realising people want all their favourite albums on vinyl and so many things have already been reissued. Not sure how long the wait would be for Felt albums, they haven't done a great job of keeping their (or Denim's) albums in print. Also his whole career seems to be full of delays so it might be a while. Still wait on that next Go-Kart album and the movie DVD release.

I'm sure I remember reading something about this somewhere, all I can find is this, though

http://feltadeclaration.tumblr.com/post/18332516457/do-you-know-anything-about-future-vinyl-reissues

deebank's solo album got reissued on vinyl recently.

regarding the sound/remastering of the 2003 remasters, is it better/different/worse than the 90s twofers? i guess i'm interested specifically about the first two albums.

http://youtu.be/wMKNPheDuhs
a little more of the interview embedded upthread.

"do you think a sense of humour is very important in all of this?"
"no"

I've always loved "Primitive Painters" and a couple of other tracks but had never really delved into their albums. I made a Spotify playlist of everything and put it on shuffle and it's all really great.

felt playing live, as featured on a spanish tv show

five songs, appearing at 0:20-9:40 and 39:45-46:40

awww man. that has made my week. what a perfect, unlooked-for time capsule. god bless televisio de catalunya. Ballad of the band sounds amazing with deebank's relentlessly gentle soloing. in fact it all sounds kindof flawless through that wall of 6th generation vhs squelch. duffy looks 7!

Amazing footage, streets ahead of the "A Declaration" concert. Some gloriously bum playing from Lawrence on "The Stagnant Pool", although might just be the murky sound.

As far as remasters I'm certain that I've read an interview with Lawrence where he bemoaned Cherry Red's tightfisted reuse of master tapes, meaning that none of the early albums exist in multi-track form any more as they were recorded over. A bit like the BBC with ancient Dr Who episodes I guess.

I'm sure there was some rumour of Ignite The Seven Cannons being remixed at Lawrence's behest

On youtube now with the stereo channel issue fixed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUcw_CkIkT8&feature=youtu.be

according to Mojo, Cherry Red are reissuing the Felt albums.
http://pub27.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=2284341502&frmid=34&msgid=1072912&cmd=show

I've been thinking about Lawrence songs that borrow/steal from other people's songs - 'Space Blues' nicks from 'Telegram Sam', 'Internet Curtains' seems inspired by Yachts' 'Suffice To Say' - what else? I'm convinced that 'Bubblehead' takes its tune from something else, but I can't place it.

Fish & Chips - Let's Dance
Synthesizers In The Rain - Vienna
Great Pub Rock Revival - Shake Some Action ("everybody but me")
On A Chicory Tip - Son Of My Father

Job Centre = Getta Bloomin' Move On (Self Preservation Society) from The Italian Job

Middle of the Road - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by er, Middle of the Road (too obvious).
Back in Denim - We Will Rock You

Shut up Sidney - Uncontrollable Urge

Anybody heard anything about the Felt albums being reissued? I want to start buying them on LP but they're fairly expensive.
― brotherlovesdub, Sunday, 19 January 2014 05:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

Looks like Captured Tracks is hoping to do vinyl reissues. Only "Gold Mine Trash" and "Bubblegum Perfume" comps announced so far on their Facebook page.

Yeah, i posted that on the 2015 reissues thread. I just bought the original pressings of both of those compilations in late-November. Terrible timing.

Wish they would do a compilation of non-album tracks, right now a lot of b-sides are still original-release only and the rest are scattered across what... five different compilations?

originals probably sound better anyway

nah, I have the original vinyl, the problem is a lot of it sounds like crap

true, my copy of Bubblegum Perfume sounds terrible.

my copy of Goldmine Trash sounds terrible and is pressed slightly off-center, Primitive Painters is a wobbly drone mess :(

a lot of b-sides are still original-release

only a few tracks have never been reissued on cd.

yeah but that just proves they're scattered all over the place

Ha I had no idea, I just always assume the worst when it comes to vinyl reissues

Re: pressing quality

Anyways, the CDs sound great

yeah but that just proves they're scattered all over the place

granted but outside of two compilations (bubblegum perfume and absolute classic masterpieces) there are only about a dozen stray tracks and half of them are just alternative versions.

Hey, thanks for that link. I compiled their rarities myself but it helped me update and improve them. Who knew that "Crucifix Heaven" has been left off all reissues of "Strange Idols Pattern"!

They all play together really well, actually, so I hope they get an airing with the latest reissue series.

it would have been nice if he'd put a couple more of those strays on the reissue of bubblegum perfume, as with "female star" etc.

"[...] Primitive Painters is a wobbly drone mess" - faithful to the original, then.

i have everything on vinyl but i would totally buy a cd singles box and a cd album box. if i had the money i would buy all the original japanese vinyl.

the japanese cd reissues that came out last year already sell for godawful amounts of money. if you can even find them to buy.

i totally would have bought that cherry red 3-cd box that came out in the 90's but i never saw one. i just saw the individual CDs back then.

half of them are just alternative versions

yeah but the single version of Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow absolutely destroys the album version, so I want all those alternate versions to make sure I'm not missing out!

disagree on "sunlight" but i do like the single version of "dismantled king is off the throne" better

"sunlight strings" is fun. on the 12-inch.

Sunlight Strings just needs the right sitcom to be the theme to.

there was no "dismantled king" single!

the version on gold mine trash was a demo.

It's the b-side to Primitive Painters

Do the CD and vinyl version of Gold Mine Trash have different versions? I think maybe they do.

crucifix heaven is pretty neat!

xps ah yeah it was on the 92 reissue of pp. not sure about differences between gmt cd and vinyl.

The GMT cassette release has the best tracklist: http://www.discogs.com/Felt-Gold-Mine-Trash/release/5610675

cathedral is the actual b-side to the primitive painters 12-inch.

cathedral just came up on my ipod the other day after yob's catharsis and it sounded SO GOOD
sent me on a felt trip <3

played Sending Lady Load at twilight last night before leaving work and it was so life-affirming I am going to do it again today

lazy sunday...

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/12342402_10154378531247137_2393306558948132317_n.jpg?oh=a5bfc9e5694de369689095adb815ba7a&oe=56E02F9A

Brilliantly set up photo.

gatefold?!?

it's two copies of the record side by side isn't it? front on the left, back on the right. Martin Duffy's slightly too wide face will be haunting my dreams

I''m partial to this one. http://www.discogs.com/Felt-Poem-Of-The-River/release/1988512

The long awaited release of Lawrence Of Belgravia is finally here.

Where are the reissues?

LAWRENCE IS BACK!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddd9fQepK0I&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddd9fQepK0I&

Reissues of all the Felt albums. Looks like Strange Idols gets it's original tracklisting and cover, unlike Crinkle which is now The Seventeenth Century
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/felt-decade-music-first-five-albums-will-released-23rd-february-2018/
Also Mozart's Mini Mart finally out in February!

uh-oh john rivers remixed ignite the seven canyons

and "edited"?? wth

Serpent Shade appears to be gone

the second half of that album was always weird to me anyway. but that doesn't mean they need to fuck with it! oh lawrence

Damn, this is terrible news. I'll just splurge on the remaining originals I guess. I figured the long delay must be bad news.

Boy am I happy I got the old 2-on-1 CDs last year, including "Crucifix Heaven".

Artists should either resist the temptation to tamper with their work or issue it alongside the original.

Hmmm, I take your point about the slightly stalin-esque undertones of the Ignite the 7 cannons thing, but i'm pretty sure any reining in of the suffocating joss stick / victorian lace cocteau-isms will be to the benefit of the lp. It's by far my least favourite of these re-issues but would definitely be the first i would buy. Lawrence has been moaning about how much he dislkes the production & lack of symmetry almost since it came out. But, yeah, I would probably be peeved if i didn't have the original.

I'm much more upset that let the snakes crinkle their heads to death has lost its title. Now, THAT is taking revisionism too far. the reissue has the same cover as my 1986 copy, I think they realised early on the alice band wasn't working for Lawrence.

Those CD box sets look pretty ugly, what are thy about?

the depressed video is a hoot.

Moderately excited about all this. Shame captured tracks aren't putting out gold mine trash, my copies shafted.

i'm all for the idea of a less messy/less submerged sounding Ignite The 7 Canons, i'm just fearful it'll end up sounding slick and weird or something..

the lack of symmetry befuddled me and i always assumed it was either intentional or they just ran out of money and couldn't record all the vocals

Hey cw, what's the issue with your Gold Mine Trash? I found a sealed copy last year, and the sound quality is horrible.

So, the CDs comes with the 7" singles and the vinyl albums comes with CD singles? If I was going to pay that much for the vinyl reissues, I'd want the singles on the same format. I think I'll be sticking with the 2002/3 cd reissues that I already have. The prices are ridiculous too. Add in, Lawrence messing about with the albums and this is one big letdown. I've been waiting for these for years!

At least the new Go-Kart song is great. I was a bit disappointed with the last album. Hope this one is back to is Denim/Felt quality.

Yeah what's interesting about this is that it's actually consistent with stuff Lawrence has said before. In addition to the Ignite stuff, when he named "Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death" Bobby Gillespie told him the title sucked and later on Lawrence voiced his regret about the title, so I'm not surprised about the change.

Anyway I'm not too upset about this. Now if he tries to fix up Mayo Thompson's production on Poem of the River...

I don't remember seeing any talk on ILM of Martin Duffy's solo album from a few years ago. It's very reminiscent of some of his Felt stuff.

So, the CDs comes with the 7" singles and the vinyl albums comes with CD singles?

it looks like the vinyl doesn't come with anything extra, only the CDs have the extra single

I'm so glad Lawrence renamed that album to The Seventeenth Century. That is my favorite Felt Album by far, and generally one of my favorite albums to listen to all the way through.

I'm looking forward to going into my MP3s and retagging the album The Seventeenth Century. Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death is such a terrible name.

The new Go-Kart Mozart album is quite comfortably the worst album Lawrence has ever put out in my opinion. It's like Novelty Rock/Instant Wig Wam without the charm. Lots of songs where Lawrence is totally phoning it in. There are a few standouts, but none of those come anywhere close to the best Denim/Go-Kart moments. Interested to know if others will have a similar experience.

Looking forward to hearing it but expectations are modest because "a few standouts" - that's been every Go-Kart Mozart album.

And also, Back in Denim > Denim on Ice > Novelty Rock > Instant Wigwam > Tearing Up the Album Charts > On the Hotdog Streets (>this probably).

Back in Denim > Denim on Ice > Novelty Rock > Instant Wigwam > Tearing Up the Album Charts > On the Hotdog Streets

<3 this series of words in spite of the declining quality of the music

that lawrence could've gone from felt to denim (let alone go kart mozart) is so inconceivable that i cant even bring myself to spend any time with those records

I prefer them to Felt tbh.

And also, Back in Denim > Denim on Ice > Novelty Rock > Instant Wigwam > Tearing Up the Album Charts > On the Hotdog Streets (>this probably).

― everything

I'd put Tearing Up the Album Charts ahead of Novelty Rock, apart from that I'd agree. I didn't think Hotdog Streets was that great, but it's much better than the new one.

Love Denim (esp the 2nd alb), never cared for Felt at all.

man i LOVE felt
what's not to like!?

It just feels like they lived in a field and now they live in a tin

this is my favorite felt song
it's so subtly groovy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy_KABAgfUk

not that anyone cares what my favorite felt song is but i adore that song so much i don't understand what's not to like about it!

Ward F OTM.

You keep raving, LL. There is a depth and subtly to Felt that just begs for repeated listens. I feel like my appreciation for them just deepens as I get older - and I didn't fall for them until I was 40!

i most like the felt albums where maurice deebank is soloing on electric all over everything

then i like the denim album with fell off the bank of a lorry

after that i'd put the more pillowy felt albums

never heard any GKM

the first two felt albums are like tapestries that just kinda unfurl forever, a ribbon that ties around the whole earth. deserts, snowy tundras, the pacific ocean, all that

I'm going to listen to them all morning

yes indeed
i was going to list the things i like but i don't need to
mostly on "cathedral" it's the spareness of the instrumentation and the interaction between the voice, the no-snare, no-cymbals perfectly subdued drums and the guitar solo that gets me. it's so dreamy and groovy at the same time
i love it

now that i think about it, there is a felt song that is on my ipod shuffle that always comes up and i love it but idk what it's called. it's more of a dirge. prob from the same album.
they are a band that is fun to listen to when i'm traveling from one place to another. also i didn't really hear them til my mid-late 30s so i know it's not nostalgia talking.

the first two albums take my breath away

I've been with various folks in bands who rock in a different idiom and don't know Felt, but when Evergreen Dazed or any track from Crumbling comes on in my car the tone of the lead guitar lines always stops conversation.

I am listening to the Stagnant Pool while my co-workers discuss possible punishments for a student here who accidentally left her handgun in a bathroom

good lord

since I posted that the campus police have reported a second unattended gun left in a bathroom in a different building

welcome to Texas/America/my nightmare

wth

Damn. Take care.

does that happen regularly?!?

most likely explanation is they've decided to start *reporting* such incidents. but I guess a gun is like a cell phone or a sunglasses, one more thing to scoop into your day bag or forget in the bathroom.

anyway, I'm torn on these Felt reissues. I want them, but they're 25 pounds a pop. and I don't really want the bonus 7" or need a signed sticker from Lawrence. sell me a 5-CD box set for 50 pounds!

The magical combo of Laurence and Deebank is so addictive and unique to me that I rarely go back to the latter day stuff

post-Deebank has a lot to offer, but it's absolutely a different kettle of fish

i feel like people don't give ignite the seven cannons enough credit. it's amazing for being the only album with lawrence deebank AND duffy

what happened to gary ainge?

ooh, look at this live recording from Spain from 1985, they sound great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUcw_CkIkT8

bass player looks so sad though

Gary Ainge did this album with Marco Thomas (who I think is the sad bassist above?) under the name Fly in 2002:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrgOjndyyqo

Put The Needle Down And Fly by Fly is one of the albums listed in the sleeve notes to Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture, one of my happiest moments in a record shop was seeing Put The Needle Down And Fly and realising it actually existed after assuming that both the album and band were fictional

(the album came out a couple of years after Instant Wigwam but Fly had already released a single in 1998 - I wonder if it was Lawrence who came up with the album title, though)